The mission was clear for the 12 remaining Chasers at NASCAR’s biggest track Sunday. Risks were necessary for some, prudence and patience mattered for others.

In the case of Brad Keselowski, his Hail Mary of a performance at the Geico 500 kept championship hope alive.

From out by a mile coming in, Keselowski did what he needed to do by winning at Talladega Superspeedway and advancing to the Eliminator round of the Chase. He’s one of the final eight who have a shot at the 2014 Sprint Cup title, and the storylines were as rich as a morning cup of coffee.

Among the biggest was the elimination of not one, not two, but three drivers from the Hendrick Motorsports stable.

It’s No. 1 on the “things that make you go ‘whoa’” list.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson basically needed wins, but came up empty. Junior led 31 laps, but got tangled in a five-car wreck on the first green-white-checkered attempt and finished 31st.

Johnson led the most laps on the day at Talladega (84), but ended up in 24th.

Kasey Kahne was eighth in points when everything was finished — five points in front of Keselowski — but Keselowski’s victory ended up knocking him out of the Eliminator round. Kahne was 12th, but needed to be four spots higher to beat teammate Jeff Gordon.

So Gordon has the Hendrick mantle now in the Eliminator round and the drive for five is very much alive. It could be beneficial with the rest of his teammates eliminated, or it could create more chaos.

That’s the rule of order in the next three race weeks. Twelve drivers became eight after Talladega, but now eight will become the final four after they race at Phoenix on Nov. 10.

The other driver eliminated Sunday was Kyle Busch. He got into his mess much earlier than he wanted, a 10-car wreck at lap 104, and finished 40th. It knocked him all the way down from second to 10th, and he missed by seven points.

Such is the luck for Busch the Younger. He’s fantastic in the Nationwide (soon to be Xfinity) Series, but it’s one of life’s greater mysteries why he folds the tent in Cup.

Out of 139 career NASCAR wins, his lowest total is 29 in the big-cheese series. Big Bro Kurt has a Cup title on his resume, so that will always be the rough bit of one-upmanship in the family.

In addition to the Penske team dominance with Joey Logano safely through, two more drivers are in the final eight with the big doughnut in the win column. Ryan Newman led as late as two laps to go before the standard late-race Talladega wreck spoiled the dream, but he still finished fifth.

Matt Kenseth is still winless in 2014 as well, but he’s in the final eight. Kenseth didn’t quite have enough at the end to catch Keselowski but his runner-up finish put him comfortably in the third round of the Amazing Chase.

Hey, there’s a name for you. Nice fit around a certain network TV reality show without the cheesy post-production soundtrack.

Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick are going about their business and will definitely have something to say about winning the 2014 Sprint Cup title when we reconvene for racing next weekend.

The Eliminator round has three tracks that couldn’t be more different, from the tight turns and brake-overheating madness of Martinsville to speed to burn at Texas to the one-mile savior that could be Phoenix, it’s anyone’s game.

And the intensity of the racing is just getting started.

Tom Zulewski’s “Through The Gear Box” blog has proudly appeared in this space for the last 10 years. He welcomes all racing opinion at tzulewski@thespectrum.com, and Twitter followers are given full garage access @Tomzsports.